January Insights from Newzoo’s PC Game Tracker: Diablo III Resurrects Player Share with Anniversary Update

Despite launching almost seven years ago, Diablo III is a prime example of a game that enjoyed a player spike following a nostalgia-focused update. In fact, it was played by 2.5% of all core PC gamers in January 2019, compared to 1.6% the month before. Publishers can use our PC Game Tracker to gauge how well their update is faring among one of the most vital consumers of their games: core PC gamers.

The longevity of a game is increasingly important in this games-as-a-service era, even for non-competitive titles. If publishers and developers constantly update a game and listen to fans’ demands, they can draw in lapsed players and retain their core fanbase, especially if they can leverage nostalgia. Core PC gamers, a market segment truly dedicated to their pastime, are an audience worth catering to, as these gamers are likely to put more time, attention, and—ultimately—money into a game. In this article, we will delve into the performance of Diablo III, using stats that are easily accessible—for any game—within our PC Game Tracker.

Diablo III Enjoys Highest Player Share in Six Months

To mark Diablo’s anniversary, Blizzard released a content update for Diablo III, allowing players to take part in a special anniversary event between January 3 and 31.

The nostalgia-inducing event gave players to chance to explore a dungeon with similar aesthetics and music to older Diablo titles. It also included new in-game items.

This resulted in 2.5% of core PC Gamers playing Diablo III in January 2019, compared to 1.6% in December 2018 and 2.1% in November 2018. In fact, the game had its highest player share since last summer.

Diablo III Performs Particularly Well in the Nordics

On a country level, the game was especially popular with core PC gamers in the Nordics in January. It was played by 5.1% of Denmark’s players, 4.3% of Sweden’s players, and 3.6% of Norway’s players—compared to the 2.5% of core gamers who played it worldwide. Needless to say, our PC Game Tracker is the perfect tool for discovering if it’s worth releasing your game in a new market.

The country with the highest average daily play time was Italy, with 42.8 minutes. New Zealand, however, had the highest average session time, at 143.5 minutes.

Blizzard has no major releases this year, so it is doubling down on nostalgia for its 2019 release calendar, with titles like World of Warcraft: Classic and Warcraft III: Reforged, which are remakes/remasters of older titles beloved by fans.

Recent titles from other publishers, including Resident Evil 2, Crash Bandicoot: N Sane Trilogy, and Nintendo’s re-releases on Switch, show that nostalgia sells. Publishers are increasingly seeing the value of adapting older content to new technology.

Our data shows that Blizzard has seen success on a small scale with this Diablo update. In January 2019, Blizzard was the top publisher globally, with 26% of all core PC gamers playing at least one of the company’s titles.

Looking to track your game’s latest update? Using our PC Game Tracker, you can access data like this and more for your game—at just a few clicks of your mouse.

January’s Most Popular Core PC Games

Dota 2 jumped two spots to #10, following the New Ranked Season Update at the end of the month. This dropped Grand Theft Auto V to #12.

Looking toward the bottom of the ranking, Arma 3 climbed three spots to #17, while Rust jumped a position to #18.

Diablo III, of course, was January’s biggest climber, shooting 13 places up the top 20 to re-enter at #19.

Battlefield V fell two spots to round off the ranking at #20, as the title continued to struggle to grab the attention of core PC gamers. The game’s upcoming battle royale mode, however, may convince players.

Our recent Apex Legends post shows that the game performed exceptionally well at the start of February, so expect some big changes at the top of next month’s ranking.

Newzoo’s PC Game Tracker

Looking to easily identify and track key markets for your game, your competitor’s games, or even an entire publisher or genre? Or get detailed insights into player behavior, using metrics like play time, session time, and crossover engagement/churn with other games? Newzoo’s PC Game Tracker offers an in-depth, monthly overview of more than 3,000 games and 100 publishers across 42 countries/markets The data is derived from Overwolf’s user base of 12 million PC game enthusiasts and can be easily sliced and diced in multiple ways using our Tableau-powered dashboard.

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